Modified Attributes

Whenever you change a attribute through the web gui or by the command
file, nagios saves the changed attribute in its retention file
(Depending on your retention settings). When the attribute has been
marked as changed, nagios will ignore any changes in the config file
for this attribute.

Simple example:

notifications are enabled for a particular host

someone disables notifications for this host and reenables it later
on

another guy changes the notifications setting in the config file for
this host and wonders why the changes will be ignored

With the modfied attributes filter a list of host and services can be
created which have modified attributes. And they can be reset by a
quick command or by a normal host/service command.

Nagios will then use the settings from the config file on the next reload.